Far East Maritime Province Tourism Special Zone Development (5)
Mikhail was sprawled out on the long sofa in his office, rolling around with no particular purpose. The sunlight was pleasant, the breeze cool. It was the perfect weather for a nap, the kind that made your eyelids grow heavy without effort.
Knock, knock.
“Come in.”
His lazy reply prompted the door to open, and two women stepped inside. They had arrived at the exact same time, as if by prior arrangement. Laura and Josepina. A chill hung between them, even sharper and more strained than on the day of the groundbreaking ceremony.
Mikhail couldn’t be bothered to sit up, so he simply gestured from where he lay. “So, did you find a solution?”
“Of course, Your Highness.” Laura spoke first. A victor’s relaxed smile played across her face. “It’s a very simple, perfectly legal, and above all, highly efficient method.”
“Oh?”
“We temporarily hire every laborer required for the construction as servants of the Grand Duke’s mansion.”
“Servants?” Mikhail echoed.
“Exactly. Imperial royalty may employ servants without any restrictions on number or duration. Legally, there is no issue no matter how many you hire.”
Laura continued with absolute confidence. “Then we simply assign those hired servants to work at the construction site. Whether a servant does housework, tends the garden, or digs up the ground on their master’s orders is entirely the master’s prerogative.”
“Whoa.” An impressed sound slipped from Mikhail’s lips. This is basically a temp agency. Is it different from a guild or labor broker? Well, I guess it is. Before he realized it, he had pushed himself upright.
“I never even considered that. To think there was such an easy workaround.”
“I found similar precedents while reviewing past cases, so there truly won’t be any problems.” Laura’s voice brimmed with confidence. She shot a triumphant glance at Josepina standing beside her.
Mikhail savored the subtle tension and turned his gaze to the other woman. “What about you, Miss Jugashvili? Your thoughts?”
“...”
Josepina remained silent for a moment. Her displeasure was obvious, but she eventually gave a small nod. “It is not illegal.” Her tone stayed dry. “As Chairwoman Laura stated, royalty’s right to employ servants is practically extraterritorial. It may be a loophole, but it does not step outside the law.”
“See? Then we’re good, right?”
“However.” Josepina continued. “The prince who employed this method was punished.”
“What?” Mikhail’s eyes widened. “Who, and why?”
“It is the case of Grand Duke Pavel, younger brother of Emperor Ivan, the great-great-grandfather of the current emperor.”
Josepina began explaining without hesitation, as if reciting from a textbook. “At the time, His Majesty valued frugality as a virtue and forbade extravagance among the nobility. This included large-scale hunting. However, Grand Duke Pavel was well known for his love of the hunt.”
“And?”
“So Grand Duke Pavel temporarily hired all the beaters and laborers needed for the hunt as ‘attendants and servants.’ He then obtained permission by claiming he was going on a very ‘modest’ stroll.”
“Pfft!” Mikhail finally burst out laughing. “Our great-great-granduncle was pretty sharp.”
“Legally he was innocent, yet he still received fifteen days of house arrest.”
“House arrest, huh.” Mikhail stopped laughing and wore a deeply meaningful smile. “I’ve already been exiled from the capital and sent to live in this Far East Maritime Province.”
“Precisely.” Josepina nodded. “Since Your Highness is already serving a punishment two degrees heavier than house arrest, there should be no issue. The offense is far too minor to warrant exile or execution.”
“Krr, perfect! Absolutely perfect!” Mikhail slapped the sofa and roared with laughter. It had been a long time since he felt genuinely amused. After laughing for a while, he wiped the tears from the corners of his eyes and looked at the two women.
“Wow, both of you are outstanding. I’ll give you proper praise.” He asked with a satisfied expression, “So whose idea was this?”
The question had barely left his mouth when—
“It was me.”
“I proposed it first.”
The two voices rang out in perfect unison.
“...?” The smile vanished from Mikhail’s face.
Laura struck first. “Didn’t I discover this method and suggest it first, Miss Jugashvili?”
“It is true that the Chairwoman discovered the method. However, I was the one who provided legal stability and proved its feasibility through historical precedents.”
Josepina refused to yield. “An idea without risk analysis is nothing more than a delusion.”
“Does sitting at a desk flipping through old records count as ‘proof’? Finding the actual solution is the real work.”
“Wasn’t the solution you found last time nothing more than a bribe?”
“What did you just say?”
“I merely stated the facts.”
Wow. Both of them really are villainesses. No wonder they’re so fierce. Mikhail stared blankly at the scene. The nightmare of university group projects from his Kim Jae-han days flashed vividly before his eyes—the senior who did all the research but only wanted to present, the teammate who just slapped their name on the file and disappeared, and himself desperately scrambling to secure a decent grade.
“Hey,” Mikhail said cautiously. “Can you two not fight?”
““Who said we were fighting!””
Once again, their voices overlapped perfectly. The two women glared at each other, then simultaneously whipped their heads away.
“...” Mikhail let out a deep sigh. “Fine, whatever.”
He waved his hand dismissively. “You both did well. Both of you. Very excellent.”
It was a half-hearted compliment completely devoid of sincerity, the sort of lazy praise one might give a dog that had performed a cute trick.
“You flatter us, Your Highness.” Laura reflexively answered with a flawless business smile. Inside, however, she was seething. This damn wastrel always treats people like dogs. He never gives proper praise unless he’s genuinely entertained.
Yet something was strange. It was clearly an insulting compliment, so why didn’t she feel bad? Instead, an unfamiliar tickling sensation stirred in a corner of her heart. The fact that she felt that way irritated Laura to no end.
“Thank you, Your Highness.” Josepina simply bowed her head in silence. No emotion showed on her face, as if the sincerity of the praise were irrelevant. That only annoyed Laura even more.
“Right, then. You may leave. I’m going back to sleep.”
Mikhail truly flopped back onto the sofa and curled up as if preparing to pull a blanket over himself. The two women left the office without another word.
Far East Maritime Province, Tourism Special Zone Development District One.
Boom! Boom! Clang!
Thousands of workers moved ceaselessly beneath the blazing sun. Every strike of iron hammers against rock and every thrust of shovels into red earth sent clouds of dust billowing upward.
“Heave-ho! Heave-ho!”
Shouts and supervisors’ bellows mixed together across the site, making the entire massive plot writhe like a single living organism.
“Now that’s a spectacle.”
Mikhail sat atop his horse on a nearby hill, gazing down at the scene with indifference. His expression was utterly serene, like someone watching a distant fire from across a river.
“Boris.”
“Yes, Your Highness.”
“Are you making sure the men working down there are eating properly?”
“Of course. We provide meat stew and bread three times a day until they’re full. The ingredients are, naturally, the highest quality supplied by the Valeriano Trading Company.”
“Good work. Hungry men can’t work worth a damn.”
Mikhail was in the middle of yawning and stretching when rapid hoofbeats thundered from afar. Raising a trail of dust as it raced toward the hill was Laura. Unlike her usual impeccable appearance, her hair was tousled by the wind and dust streaked her cheeks.
“Your Highness!” She practically leaped from the saddle, panting heavily.
“Laura? What’s going on? Why the mad dash?” Mikhail asked lazily.
“It’s a disaster!” Laura cried, too agitated for formalities. “All the trading companies we contracted for stone supply have unilaterally terminated their agreements.”
“What?”
“And that’s not all.” Laura bit her lip in frustration. “They’ve colluded and are now demanding more than triple the original contract price. If we refuse, they won’t sell us so much as a single pebble. I came to report before beginning negotiations—”
In that instant, every trace of expression vanished from Mikhail’s face. He remained silent for a moment, then slowly opened his mouth.
“Is that so?”
His eyes were not smiling. Only the corners of his lips had curled upward.
“How dare they?”